Planting rural growers in urban food deserts
I’ve spent my life traveling back and forth between Memphis, where I was raised and schooled, and my family’s farm in Glimp, a small unincorporated area of Lauderdale County near Ripley, a town whose juicy tomatoes are so acclaimed they’re honored with their own festival.
For three generations, my African American family has delivered those tomatoes, and assorted other fruits and vegetables, to the some of the most disadvantaged areas of the Bluff City.
Around the time I started first grade in the 1960’s, I began helping my parents cultivate the soil and harvest the crops, which we’d then load up to deliver to the now-defunct Scott Street Market in Binghamton. When that market closed, many residents lost access to fresh produce.
Farmers markets are imperative to keeping our residents healthy. This is especially true in poverty-stricken areas where transportation is an issue and anchor grocery stores decline to open locations.
If someone does not have access to a car and lives more than a mile from a grocery store, they live in a food desert.
This describes too many Memphis residents, who then must subsist on what’s readily available -- fast, junk and processed foods from convenience and dollar stores, and staples such as milk or bread that are significantly marked up.
Eating this way over a period of time can lead to chronic health problems such as obesity, diabetes and dental disease, which significantly decreases quality of life, raises health care costs, and even impacts our public education system. Imagine trying to focus in school when you’re always hungry, low on energy, or dealing with chronic toothaches.
Vegetables are the most-sold items at farmers markets, and most vendors have customers using SNAP or EBT benefits. We know that people want to eat nutritious food and keep their families healthy, but we’ve got to meet them where they are.
Research shows most customers travel between zero and five miles to shop at farmers markets, where the average transaction costs between $10 and $25. That’s a far better return on time and money, and what Memphis families need to stay healthy and food secure.
Communities Unlimited, a nonprofit based in Fayetteville, Ark., is working with farmers markets in Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and four other states to increase the number of shoppers. They need growers to show up and meet the demand.
Communicating with growers can be challenging, since we’re usually in the fields or selling our produce. Many of my colleagues aren’t easily accessible through electronic communications, so the most effective way to reach potential vendors is through word of mouth.
Thanks to Communities Unlimited, information about farmers like me will now be easier to come by via the MidSouth Farmers Network on Facebook. The network will host opportunities for residents to purchase our fresh fruits and vegetables at strategically placed pop-up food markets and more.
On market days, I haul my sweet potatoes, red potatoes, bitter melon, purple hull peas, okra, cucumbers, squash, banana and jalapeno peppers, herbs, and, of course, my Ripley tomatoes from Glimp to Memphis, as I have for five decades.
I’m grateful for the relationships I have with my customers and the food that connects us rural and urban folks. When the markets thrive, I feel supported by my community and thankful for a model that nourishes so many.
Your Turn Debra Lockard
Debra Lockard, a Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) Certified Farmer, owns Lockard’s Produce, LLC, in Glimp, Tenn.